I was always surprised that QR, in the past, never planned to install first class seating on the A380 which will be the flagship in its fleet.
But the news items to which you linked, seem to have been inspired by an article in Aviation Week dated March 14. It refers to comments made by QR's CEO at the recent ITB trade show in Berlin.

Isn't this a turnaround of some sort? Aren't they throwing their current First Class out to replace it with a new Business Class, thus effectively having a pure 2 class product? Why that change in logic?

Yes, it looks like a turnaround. So instead of having a two-class configuration as we see on QR's newest planes (like the B777s) QR is reverting to a three-class layout on the A380. But the first class product will have to be good (at least to suite standard) if it is to rival carriers like EK and SQ.

QR seriously think about reconfiguring their A 380 cabin to include premium economy because there isn't really a need for them to install approximately 80 J class seats when a lot of them wont be taken up by revenue paying pax. In addition having a 517 seater aircraft in your fleet when your next biggest plane i.e. a B 77W having 335 shows a huge gap lying in between of 182 pax.

In any case, QR's A 380s will be a stand alone product with the only aircraft type in the fleet to have a F class cabin. They can expand on this by also adding in a premium economy cabin by reducing the number of J class seats on board. If QR's A 380s have instead of 80, a maximum number of 60 seats, it can install a premium economy cabin in a 2-3-2 cabin with 35 seats offering a seat pitch of 38 inches and a seat width of 18.5 inches.

Quoting behramjee (Reply 5):QR seriously think about reconfiguring their A 380 cabin to include premium economy because there isn't really a need for them to install approximately 80 J class seats when a lot of them wont be taken up by revenue paying pax.

But is there a demand for Y+ amongst travellers in the Gulf region ? No other Gulf or Middle East carrier offers a Y+ product and neither do many other European carriers with whom they compete.

From the OP link:
"The A380 "will be the only model in our fleet which will have a first-class cabin", Akbar al Baker, the chief executive of Qatar Airways, said last week."

and later:
"The A380 "will be the only model in our fleet which will have a first-class cabin", Akbar al Baker, the chief executive of Qatar Airways, said last week."

Huh? How will they have decent connectivity? F is very difficult to make a profit with. You're either offering the product customers want, or they charter that Gulfstream. Without excellent connection on both sides of DOH, F all the way, I just do not see how this is a better business decision than all Y and J?

Seriously, I do not see how they're going to compete with QF, EK, or SQ on any of their routes (due to the connectivity). Does DOH have an unusual amount of regional business jet transfer to QR that I'm unaware of?

Quoting 123 (Reply 6):Too many classes - from a pax point of view - only confuse choices. From an airliners management point of view, too many classes=too many costs.

I agree. Certain airlines that are known for their premium cabins can pull off four class operations (e.g., SQ). Most airlines should simplify to two or three classes for long haul. In QR's case, I would vote for 2 class operation as 123 suggested.